What??

Actually I can hear a lot better than I could on Tuesday, but the doctor figures that I have a middle ear infection. Up until today I wasn’t feeling at all sick (apart from feeling dizzy because one ear is totally clogged) but today I do. OK, so how can I feel like I have a hangover when I haven’t had any alcohol for 48 hours? Gee, all the bad “morning after” without any of the “night before” — that’s no fun! I’ll have to have a glass of wine with dinner tonight so I can at least have a reason for the buzz in my head.

Hey, it’s December already! How does time go so fast when I feel like I’ve accomplished so little? I’ve been digging out my vintage Advent Calendar that I made when Darling Daughter wasn’t much older than my Granddaughter and GD’s Daddy was just a baby still. It’s in the shape of a tree with Granny’s pearl buttons stitched all over. Each day we button on a felt decoration until on Christmas day we put the final star on the top together. I’ve tried to pass this calendar on to one or the other of my kids but they aren’t interested in the admittedly tacky old thing. Daughter-in-law wants to make her own and Daughter doesn’t really decorate much at all. So I put the poor thing up in its usual place and put the first decoration on it. Ah, tradition! I’d take a picture but it looks even less exciting than usual with only one limp felt thing on it. Let’s face it — I’m Christmas-impaired.

I also got out the even more tacky Christmas tree picture that my Birth Mom made for me. A large frame with a burgundy velvet background and a tree made from broken wine bottles and junk jewelry. And — wait for it — mini lights poking through. Yes, it plugs in! This year I added more junk decorations to it since apparently that’s what I was supposed to do years ago when she gave it to me. Every year since she’s complained that I haven’t contributed anything so I rummaged through the jewelry chest I’ve had since I was 13 and found a few pieces. I added some earrings that had belonged to my sister whom I never met because she died in a car crash a couple of years before my birth family found me. They aren’t my style and this is a better way to display them for at least a month or two. I also added some bits and bobs that Birth Mom gave me which of course also aren’t my style. She wears gold and I wear silver. She wears nice fine chains with little precious stones and I wear glass beads and rocks that don’t even rate semi-precious status. We’re totally different in some ways and so much alike in others. Remember, I didn’t meet her until I was 40. Unless you count the day I was born, that is. Funny thing — I don’t remember that?

The sock knitting class yesterday night was almost-but-not-quite as bad as I thought it was going to be. Two people didn’t show up which helped. Only a couple of people couldn’t do any type of cast-on besides the backwards loop and one of those learned the long-tail cast-on really quickly (once she got over her fear of learning something new). I’d say maybe half of them are having trouble with the double-pointed needles. We’ll see next week if this gets worse or not. I hate teaching sock knitting. But my boss loves me. And she's taking the class too. Again.